


Heaven and Earth and Humanity's Favour

by stickmarionette



Category: Sān guó yǎn yì | Romance of the Three Kingdoms - All Media Types
Genre: Character Study, Chromatic Source, Gen, Historical, Magnificent Bastards, Metaphors, Philosophy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 10:15:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2808755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stickmarionette/pseuds/stickmarionette
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zhuge Liang gets some clarity.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heaven and Earth and Humanity's Favour

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Umbralpilot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Umbralpilot/gifts).



> A note on names:
> 
> In this time period, to call someone by their name was rather rude. And in the course of the narrative of RotK characters are frequently referred to either by title or style name. A rough guide:
> 
> Zhuge Liang - style name Kongming  
> Guan Yu - style name Yunchang  
> Zhao Yu - style name Zilong  
> Yueying - commonly said to be the name of Lady Huang, the legendary wife of Zhuge Liang

 

> "Should you wish to achieve dominion, in the north you may let Cao Cao have Heaven's mandate; in the south let Sun Quan have Earth's advantage. You, General, may have humanity's favour."
> 
> \- Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Chapter 38

 

It is said that when Liu Bei, direct descendant of Emperor Jing, was young, he would play at being Emperor, declaring himself the son of Heaven and taking trees to be the Imperial canopy. But daydreams could not buy rice for the table, and the boy became a man who spent his days weaving and selling straw hats and shoes. That was what he was doing when the will of Heaven caught up with him, at the age of twenty-eight.

 

*

 

When the will of Heaven catches up to Zhuge Liang, at a similar age, it finds him standing ready in anticipation.

In truth, it's not a moment too soon. He is as well suited to the role of reclusive farmer as his lord is to selling straw hats. That is, not at all.

 

*

 

The site of Zhuge Kongming's first step forward into the light is an inauspicious one. Xinye is a town fit for nothing but rustic leisure, with few resources and little potential. Fine for slumber, perhaps, but now he is awake, ready to bestride the world, and Xinye is far too small.

There are the whispers among his lord's men about his youth, speculation on the circumstances of his unmerited elevation. He ignores them. How can common birds understand the ambition of the crane that has travelled ten thousand miles? In time, all will be clear.

In the night sky he sees the coming of a intemperate summer. Soon, his feather fan will be of more common use. And when the heat breaks, war will arrive with the changing winds, Cao Cao sweeping in with overwhelming force to remove the nail in his eye.

He'll expect an easy victory, and rightly so - if the meagre forces of Liu Bei were to meet them head on it would be like hitting stone with an egg.

It does not seem like the height of virtue to be excited by the prospect of applying all his scholarly learning to a real battle, where men will fight at his direction and die at his urging. Nevertheless, he finds himself looking forward to it.

In the meantime, he has a lord who considers himself so bound by virtue that he would refuse the vast and valuable lands of Jing province were they to be offered to him on a platter. Some would say that such virtue is an inherent good, but Kongming fancies himself more intelligent than sanctimonious flocks of Confucian scholars who would never look up from their scrolls even as a slaughter happens outside their window. A rigid adherence to virtue can compromise the greater good, and if he has to make his lord see that, then he will.

As if Heaven itself were minded to assist him, a local farmer soon presents the perfect opportunity. Kongming arrives in Magistrate's audience hall to see his lord oblivious to the world, engrossed in weaving a yak's tail. It's a mild shock to see callused, weathered hands most accustomed to holding swords engaged in something so delicate, and he can't help but stop on the threshold, afraid of breaking the spell. The lack of tension marring his lord's face strips years from him; it's as if he's been transported to a simpler, burdenless time.

Just like that, the idea takes shape in Kongming's mind. He can't help a thin smile.

"I see that my lord has renounced all ambitions for simpler pursuits."

A flash of embarrassment crosses his lord's face, too acute to hide, before he stands with his usual careful, boundless courtesy. "Ah, Kongming. You're right, of course. I was merely using it to relieve my worries. Please be seated and give me the benefit of your counsel."

Kongming sketches a shallow bow before settling down onto his knees. Occasionally, the permissiveness of his lord surprises him anew. No wonder tongues wag - there are few lords under Heaven who would respond so positively to his lack of deference. For example:

"My lord, how do you think you stand compared with Cao Cao?"

"Inferior," says his lord, without a trace of hesitation or embarrassment. Kongming has to hide a too-fond smile behind his fan.

"Our force is mere thousands. If Cao Cao sends his army against us, how would we meet him?"

His words work on his lord like a spell - the yak's tail is instantly forgotten, thrown to one side just as the poor merchant is thrown aside for the warlord. "You have deduced my worries exactly. As usual." The last is said with the ingratiating faint smile he uses on the young lieutenants. It never fails to make their backs straighten, and it works just as well on Kongming.

It's good to be reminded that his lord has a gift for people. Laying his fan down on the bench, Kongming readies himself for an argument. "My lord, when we met I spoke of how your enterprise could succeed. Now I would like to speak of how it could fail."

"Please. I will attend humbly."

At this point, the chief attendant enters with their tea, made from an exceptional batch gifted to his lord by Governor Liu Biao of Jing province. By such small tokens, Liu Biao seeks to placate his lord and keep his favour, not realising that it's akin to feeding chives to a tiger.

The tea is good, though. Kongming allows himself a moment to appreciate the aroma first. 

"Your greatest enemy, my lord, is hesitation. The will of Heaven presents us with opportunities, but the window is short. It is up to us to act at the opportune time, without being bound by false considerations."

"You speak of the matter of Jing province," his lord says reluctantly.

"To begin with, yes."

"I cannot turn against our patron, especially a fellow man of the royal blood."

His lord's words ring with conviction, just as they had when Kongming first heard them in his cottage. Then, as now, he is equally impressed and frustrated by them.

"Liu Biao may be of the royal line, but all under Heaven can see that he's an incompetent. Further, I hear that he will not last the year."

Far from displaying any hint of pleasure, his lord winces like he's just swallowed something unpleasant.

"Then I hope to see rumour proven wrong."

"It is the opposite of virtue to refuse heaven's mandate when it is thrust upon you."

His lord smiles at the iron in his voice. "But Kongming, I'm sure Cao Cao's advisers tell him the same."

"Unlike them, it is not in my character to enable tyranny," Kongming says with a dismissive wave.

"Nor are you easily tempered, even by authority."

It could be a rebuke, coming from anyone else; from his lord, with the weight and warmth of his gaze, it sounds like permission.

Kongming inclines his head, smiling. "My lord may say so."

"In one as wise as you, it's a virtue."

"How can insubordination be virtuous when it offends against the proper relationship between lord and servant?"

Sometimes, Kongming just can't help himself. He enjoys the game too much.

That bit of cheek earns him a rueful shake of the head. "Now you are mocking me. I do understand the difference between the small virtues and the great."

"Then I humbly beg my lord's pardon," Kongming says, with his best approximation of contrition.

His lord laughs like a man who has been in the saddle for half his life, loud and open and without fear. "You've not yet reached the advanced age when you begin to think of posterity, unlike Cao Cao and my poor self."

Kongming does not remember a time when he was not keenly aware of posterity.

"Were you anyone else, my lord, I would wonder if it was virtue or the appearance of virtue that you prize so much."

"Do you really think that they can be separated?"

The words fall like stones into the pond of Kongming's mind. For all his learning and calculation, he is young and untried, while his lord has had years of facing up to the most vicious warlords under Heaven. The unassuming nature of the man makes it far too easy to forget.

Kongming suspects his lord prefers it that way.

"You told me that my advantage was having humanity's favour. I won't give it up so easily. Can you accept that?"

"I am an instrument for your will, my lord. My wisdom goes exactly as far as your ambition. You told me what that was in my cottage."

"Then I will have to take the measure of my ambition again so that I do not waste your talent." His lord is not one to wear his joy and anger on his face, but Kongming has seldom seen him as inscrutable as he is now. "Without your guidance, Instructor, I am lost. I will not forget that."

 

*

 

Kongming leaves the presence of his lord as uncertain as he can ever remember being. It's an uncomfortable feeling, and he's too caught up in it to pay much attention to the courtyard or its occupants.

"Jing Province again? Nobody gets my brother to do something he doesn't want to do."

The speaker's voice booms with the authority of one used to being obeyed, and Kongming feels his back straightening beneath his robes as he turns to face Guan Yunchang.

"Don't you agree with me, General?"

"Doesn't matter if I do. I advise you to serve the lord you have, not the one you want. "

Resting cross-legged with the grace and serenity of a statue, Yunchang never bothers to glance up at Kongming, his entire attention caught by a weiqi board. The game is in an advanced stage, but still nowhere near the endgame.

"The game is abandoned," Kongming says mildly. He is wary of causing offence, out of great respect for the loyalty and ability of his lord's blood brothers. With his lord's support, it is possible that he might overcome their suspicion by force, but he's never been a fan of force where subtlety would do just as well. They will submit willingly to his authority, sooner or later.

"Little point in continuing when the outcome was so obvious. Black has no prospect of averting defeat."

With the eye of a military man, perhaps that's true. Kongming looks at the board and sees a worthy challenge. "No?"

Yunchang laughs. "You enjoy lost causes. That'll serve you well with Eldest Brother."

"My lord is far from a lost cause."

"But only if he succumbs to your way of thinking? He'd die rather than let his good name be tainted."

"Is that really true?"

"In a way. Eldest Brother does not see matters the way we do."

Kongming fancies himself virtuous, too, but he knows he is more like Guan Yunchang than he is like their lord. His path was set years ago when Cao Cao torn through his home province of Xu and made the rivers run with the blood of the innocent. Even in this era of chaos the massacre was infamous. Kongming has never forgotten a single moment.

"You and General Zhang - you do what my lord cannot, though he knows the necessity of it."

Yunchang dismisses the implied compliment and insult both with a shake of his head. "He can't act against his nature."

"Ambition is his nature too. As it is in the nature of all great lords."

"Yet you do not follow Eldest Brother because he is like the other lords. It is true that but for his insistence upon virtue, we might have been spared a few trials. But without it, he would never have been able to gain the loyalty of so many able men such as Zilong...and yourself."

It's a valued concession, coming from one of his lord's brothers, who are suspicious of him for good reason. It deserves a sincere response.

"Whatever talent I have, I made my choice to use it to elevate our lord. The only uncertainty is whether he has the stomach for it."

"If you think that, you are a fool," says Yunchang, without much rancour. "Eldest Brother is seldom wrong about anyone. He chose your course for a reason. That's all you need to understand."

General Guan is haughty, but not devoid of insight. Unlike Kongming, he does not look at a man and see only levers, weaknesses, foibles. Sometimes that can be an advantage.

Kongming resolves to think on it.

 

*

 

The next morning, he's sitting at breakfast with Yueying when the messenger arrives.

"My lord bid me bring you this."

The item in question is a summer hat expertly woven out of straw with the offending yak's tail dangling off the top. Printed upon the accompanying scroll in his lord's flowing script:

_"Man proposes, Heaven disposes._

_If you judge my humble self to be worthy then I will continue, even if all under Heaven label me a hypocrite."_

For once, Kongming finds himself lost for a reaction.

Beside him, Yueying laughs. "See, husband, there's no need to despair. I think our lord understands you far better than you understand him."

"I am beginning to see that," Kongming says ruefully. He turns to the messenger. "Convey my thanks to my lord. Tell him that I will need to see him today about recruiting and training cadets."

Fortunate is the able man who finds himself with an enlightened master; to be known is a gift beyond even his imagination.

Let Cao Cao's men come. Kongming will be ready to greet them with a sea of fire. He whose hands have never held a weapon will kill masses with a wave of his fan, in the name of his lord. He can see it play out behind closed eyes; almost smell the scent of charred bodies and smoke.

Kongming smiles.

**Author's Note:**

> This story is shot through (heh) with Chinese idioms and references to various events within Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Some notes for those who are unfamiliar:
> 
> \- The story about Liu Bei as a child is from chapter 1 of RotK.
> 
> \- The reference to slumber is, of course, a reference to Zhuge Liang's nickname Sleeping Dragon.
> 
> \- “鹏飞万里，其志岂群鸟能识哉" (How can common birds understand the ambition of the crane that has travelled ten thousand miles?) - my own translation of Zhuge Liang's famous retort from chapter 43 of RotK.
> 
> \- "眼中丁" (nail in someone's eye) - the Chinese equivalent of a thorn in someone's side.
> 
> \- "以卵击石" (hitting stone with egg) - Chinese idiom, to express a disparity in strength.
> 
> \- The original version of the yak's tail story is in Chapter 39.
> 
> \- Weiqi is also known as Go. It originated in China over 2500 years ago and is known as one of the 'four essential arts' of the Chinese scholar, along with calligraphy, painting and the qin. 
> 
> \- Zhuge Liang was born in or close to what was then known as Xu province. When he was a kid, Cao Cao launched a punitive invasion against the governor of Xu province for the murder of Cao's father. The Book of the Later Han states that hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed in the subsequent massacre (as a form of collective punishment), such that the local river was stoppered up with their corpses. I've always thought that Zhuge Liang's particular dislike of Cao Cao could in part be traced back to this event.
> 
> \- "谋事在人, 成事在天" (man proposes, Heaven disposes) - almost certainly anachronistic as a saying, but too useful not to use. 
> 
> \- I tried very hard to find an English equivalent to "知音" (literally translated - to know/understand someone's music) but there really is no pithy way to do it. The essence is basically to be known and understood completely, and I hope I conveyed that.
> 
> \- Thanks to my flatmates for all their help and support. Dear recipient, I hope you accept and enjoy my humble offering.


End file.
